How to Make and Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

Lose weight? Watch less TV? Get a new job? Declutter? Stop smoking? Spend less time online and more with friends? Learn a new skill? Think positively? If the idea of making New Year's Resolutions is accompanied by a little voice telling you that you never keep them (and so why bother?) this post is for you. Keeping motivated isn't as hard as it may seem once you have a few key factors in place to help you reach your goals. And the good news is you probably have much of what you need already. If you don't, help is at hand.

On the other hand, if you're one of those amazing people who achieves whatever they set their mind to with ease, this may seem familiar, and I hope will spur you on to greater challenges this year.

Control

The first thing to ask yourself when making your New Year's Resolution, is 'Do I have control over this?' And importantly that includes control over the choice to set that particular goal. For example, if you are aiming to lose weight because someone else wants you to, your motivation isn't going to last very long. In fact that may make you feel completely demotivated. Quite simply, your goal needs to be truly your own if you are to achieve it. It needs to be something you want to do.

Tip - Ask yourself, 'Whose goal is this really?'

Congruence

Congruence is a word coaches love but simply put it means that the goal needs to be in line with your values. For example, if one of your values is that your family should have the best opportunities possible, you may find it easy to squeeze your children's interests into your busy schedule but focusing on your own career or personal development may be more difficult. On the other hand, you might recognise that by pursuing your own interests you also provide a good role model for your children. A coach can help you explore your values so that you can make New Year's Resolutions which feel right for you.

Tip - Ask yourself 'Is my goal in line with what's really important to me?

Competence and Confidence

You need to feel that you can achieve your goal. That may mean you need to learn new skills in order to do so, but you need to feel confident that each step towards your goal is manageable.

Tip - Break your goal down into simple steps.

Connections

We are social animals and even if our goal is to have more time alone, we are more likely to achieve this if we have the support of others. This is one of the reasons why people who join a gym often have more success than those who go it alone. Think of someone who wants to take up running, for example. It may be that one of the reasons for them doing so is to have some 'me time'. However there will be days when it rains and motivation is hard to find. That's when the support of someone else (and I don't mean the type of support that offers you a cup of hot chocolate and a cosy evening in) helps get you out there despite the weather.

Tip - Get someone in your corner.

Preparing for Challenges.

It happens - your partner/son/daughter eats the healthy meal you were keeping for yourself, or the car breaks down and your new found positive thinking flies straight out of the window, or you are ready to apply for that new job but your Internet connection goes down. What do you do? Returning to our lone runner on a rainy evening for a moment, it would be so easy for them to have a night off, but how would they feel afterwards? Chances are that they'd feel disappointed at least and might find that the little voice that tells them they never stick to anything starts to speak up louder than usual. We know that things crop up in life that can throw us off track, so better to be prepared for them in advance. That's where realistic goal setting can come in (aim to run 3 times a week instead of every day?) and identifying different options in case the inevitable should happen.

Tip - Have a back-up plan.

Celebrate Your Successes

We humans have a funny way of noticing what goes wrong over what is going well, and it's easy to be hard on ourselves when we feel we've let ourselves down. We eat the cake we promised ourselves we wouldn't, we decide that learning that new skill isn't as important as a night in front of the T.V, or we get to halfway through January and our goal seems just too far ahead to reach. That's where it can help to stop and look at what you've already achieved. Celebrate the days you didn't have the cake, acknowledge the things you've already learned, look at the distance you've already travelled - realise you're on your way.

Tip - Look at what you've achieved already. You're doing great!

Get a Coach

I know you can do this but it's far easier when you have the help of someone who wants you to succeed. That's where coaching comes in. I can help you set realistic goals which are in line with your values, help you break that goal down into manageable steps, help you identify obstacles, keep you accountable and, best of all, celebrate your successes. You can contact me either by using the contact form on this page or via my facebook page. I look forward to helping you achieve your goals.

Tip - Contact me now and let's get your New Year's Resolutions off to fantastic start.

Wishing You a Very Happy New Year.

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